A green jobs program that took advantage of federal stimulus money may be winding down but for at least half of those who participated, Energy Corps led them to full-time jobs with local organizations.
“Not only were they able to work on projects for their host sites during their service terms but they gained green job training skills that had a big part in their getting hired, ultimately,” said Dan Dean, who heads up the program in Northwest Arkansas. “The program allows organizations to work on projects that they would not otherwise be able to attack without the support from NCAT (National Center for Appropriate Technology) and from the AmeriCorps program to train members and grow our green work force and see these sorts of energy savings that we see from the work that the members have done.”
Each member was placed with a nonprofit or governmental organization as a host site for their service term. Some of the workplaces received stimulus money.
Volunteers served with Boston Mountain Solid Waste, Fayetteville Recycling and Community Development Divisions, Springdale School District, Washington County, NorthWest Arkansas Community College, University of Arkansas Applied Sustainability Center and several rural school districts on projects ranging from assessing energy use to weatherizing homes and developing education and outreach recycling and sustainability programs.
Dean said 27 members have completed their service terms since 2010. Seven of those members served two terms. Nine of them were hired by their host site and an additional five have gone on to get “green jobs” with other organizations.
“Many saw the benefit and kept them on, either in that position or another, with their own money,” Dean said. “There were nine of the host sites that housed a member for a year and decided to hire them on full-time to continue the work that they had started.”
Washington County and the solid waste district teamed to host four volunteers, according to Sophie Stephenson, director of the Washington County Environmental Affairs and a former AmeriCorps volunteer. The waste district had money available for education and the county provided equipment, training and a work space. The cost to the waste district was about $12,000 for each volunteer for an 11-month term.
“Knowing that Energy Corps was looking for host sites, we thought it would be a great opportunity to foster some people learning some new skills while providing extra staff for us to help do education and outreach,” Stephenson said. “The payback was amazing. There’s something great that happens when you have excited, skilled people working together. We went from having one educator to a team of three educators working together and having that synergy with the three of them, it’s like more than tripling what one person can do.”
Stephenson said education and outreach programs initiated by the volunteers reached almost 8,000 children and adults but the program was more than that.
“Part of it is building community and I don’t know how to put a dollar figure on that,” Stephenson said.
Leah Saffian is now an environmental educator with her host site, the Washington County Environmental Affairs Office. Saffian said she has continued the work she started as an Energy Corps member. She teaches students in rural communities about solid waste through interactive activities and leads tours that take a closer look at how trash is handled in Northwest Arkansas.
At A Glance
Energy Corps
The National Energy Corps program is an AmeriCorps initiative of the National Center for Appropriate Technology in cooperation with The Corporation for National and Community Service. Energy Corps was created to address unmet community energy needs by promoting sustainable energy consumption and education, fostering community sustainability and helping to mitigate the effects of global climate change. Energy Corps provides hands-on training and skills development to help design a green-collar work force capable of meeting the needs of the future.
Source: Energy Corps
“Participating in the Energy Corps program has helped me to become part of a like-minded community that is committed to building a sustainable energy, food and transportation infrastructure for Northwest Arkansas,” Saffian said.”During my service term, which was just over a year, I participated in amazing programs such as Northwest Arkansas Upstream Art, which allowed local artists to paint murals on storm drains to educate the public about the dangers of dumping liquids down the drains.”
Saffian is also joining forces with another former Energy Corps member, Elizabeth Hill, on environmental education programs with the Solid Waste District.
Hill, a Fayetteville native, said the program allowed her to return to the area and give something back to her community.
“One of the most beneficial things, in my opinion, was just the networking and the community that was created through the program and, now, how many of those Energy Corps members have positions in this field and in this area,” Hill said. “It’s a really satisfying experience just getting to be out there in the public and spreading the word.”
Dana Smith grew up outside Philadelphia and got an Energy Corps position with Fayetteville Public Schools where she helped develop the sustainability office position for which she was eventually hired.
“It was a really great chance to get to know the school district and see what they were doing and for them to get to know me,” Smith said. “I got to show the district the value of having that position with minimal investment on their part. So, for us, it was sort of a trial period for 11 months.”
Dean said the program brought a lot of opportunities to people who were interested and had the motivation and passion to tackle environmental issues but who didn’t have the means to get the training they needed to actually get them out there working.
At A Glance
The Value of National Service
When viewed in the aggregate, the economic value of service by youth and seniors is significant both for broader society and the taxpayer.
Across the 125,750 full-time equivalent national service members annually, the total social cost is $2 billion and the total social benefit is $7.9 billion. The benefit-cost ratio is 3:9 for every dollar invested in the network of national service programs currently operating and the social return is almost $4.
In the aggregate, total taxpayer spending on national service is $1.36 billion; the total benefit from this investment for taxpayers is $2.94 billion. The fiscal benefit-cost ratio is 2:2. For every dollar invested in national service by the taxpayer, more than $2 is returned in taxpayer savings.
Source: Aspen Institute, September 2013 Study
“I think that sort of the primary outcome was being able to get those folks the training they needed to go out and do good things for our community,” Dean said.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, commonly called the “stimulus,” was designed to spur economic growth while creating new jobs and saving existing ones, according to the U.S. Energy Department. The Energy Department invested more than $31 billion to support a wide range of clean energy projects across the nation.
Dean said the Energy Corps program is winding down because there’s no more federal money available.
“The program was funded for three years and the end of April will be the end of our third year of operation,” Dean said. “Right now, there are two members in Northwest Arkansas finishing their terms, one at the university sustainability center and one with the Illinois River Watershed Partnership, and we are in the process right now of applying for state funding to continue the program next year.”
Dean said even if state money is found, there would be a lapse in service between the end of April and the earliest date he would be able to resume the program.
“If we receive funding, it will be the end of September 2014,” Dean said. “It also takes time to find and train people.”